An unprecedented 26.8 million followers of a social-media account were gained in a matter of two months before the Jantar Mantar protests in Delhi. While the protests and the response constitute a separate discussion, the role of Big Tech in the rapid growth of a social-media account raises broader questions about how algorithmic boosting can amplify certain voices.AdvertisementIn a recent podcast, Scott Galloway, NYU Professor and member of the University of California Board of Regents, outlined some critical questions about regulating the incredibly powerful Deep Tech and Big Tech companies such as Instagram and YouTube. “There are more full-time Amazon lobbyists in Washington, DC, than there are sitting US senators,” he said. One of the most powerful legal protections which protects Big Tech is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which provides immunity to online platforms like Instagram and YouTube from being sued for user-generated content. The law states that online content service providers are not treated as information publishers.Also Read | At Jantar Mantar, the story isn’t just the demands — it’s people finally showing upBig Tech content platforms have generated $11 billion from users under the age of 18. Hence, it is in their interest to continue promoting the use of these platforms by that age group. The challenge faced by regulators is when such platforms engage in algorithmic boosting of certain accounts, which can lead to building millions of followers in a matter of weeks, thereby legitimising the content of such accounts.India, the EU and others missed the opportunity to regulate search — which has created the $220 billion search ad revenue market for just a single company, Google. The impact of search rankings on platforms like Google and Amazon has been experienced by merchants across the world. Similar challenges were posed when user-generated content platforms like YouTube, Instagram and Facebook came into existence. They have now become not only the largest ad revenue platforms but they also tend to legitimise the voices of those with followers in tens of millions, something which the earlier search-focused platforms had not engaged in. The latest challenge is the agentic AI-powered knowledge/inference-era of ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini.AdvertisementFor those of us who grew up in the early 1980s, what was ironically at the core of the NEET exam leak debate was that competency in understanding complex scientific concepts and clearing tough exams was the surest way of succeeding in jobs and careers. Somewhere along the way, mastery of knowledge has become less influential, especially (and rightfully so) after the democratisation of sophisticated knowledge by agentic AI platforms. Engineers from Anthropic, the company behind Claude, have themselves reported that the main users of platforms like Claude are not humans but agentic AI solutions who will keep fine-tuning their prompts in the background to distil knowledge and information.During the recent student protests at Jantar Mantar, internet services were suspended, based on government DoT regulatory directives throughout July 24 and 25. Peer-to-peer Bluetooth-powered messaging app BitChat, started by the Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, also came under the radar and was reportedly blocked from download. While internet data and peer-to-peer messaging apps were blocked, the much harder challenge of regulating user-generated content platforms like Instagram, Facebook and YouTube remained.you may likeThe lack of regulation of Big Tech has allowed algorithmic boosting of profiles and content to quickly make certain voices appear to represent the broader public. We need to remember that billions of dollars of revenue are at stake for the Big Tech platforms, and hence spending a few million on ensuring favourable regulations would remain core to their strategy and long-term survival. While we as a nation could not regulate search-based information listing and user-generated content boosting, recognising the power of Big Tech to algorithmically boost and legitimise certain voices demands urgent regulatory intervention.More important than the exam leak is ensuring that genuine knowledge and intellectual competence remain at the core of our education system, rather than allowing opinions to be shaped primarily by algorithmically amplified content or AI-generated inferences.The writer is founder and CEO of Respirer Living Sciences